Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

The MB is raising funds for Hamas

The Muslim Brotherhood — the region's largest fundamentalist political movement, with branches and affiliated groups in 86 countries — announced its own funding drive.

"We will appeal to each and every Muslim to help the Palestinians in the face of this unjust and fierce campaign (against Hamas)," the Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, told the Associated Press in Cairo.

The group will ask supporters to donate one-quarter of their income, Brotherhood official Mohammed Hilal told the Cairo-based Al-Masry Al-Yawm newspaper.
This is expected, because Hamas is the palestinian MB's wing and the first MB government in the region, and they don't want them to look bad..ehh... I mean worse than they already do. But here is the question that always made me wonder: If Hamas is the MB's palestinain wing, doesn't that mean that technically Mahdi Akef is their actual leader? Doesn't that make him the supreme leader of a terrorist organization?
And if we ignore that part and say that Hamas is independent and loosely affiliated- don't you just love how all the terrorist organizations that sprang out of the MB are "indepednet and loosely affiliated btw?- doesn't that mean that Iran and the MB are officially financing a terrorist organization? Isn't there some law against this somewhere?
Hmmm.....

14 Comments:

Ahhh Sandy, dont you just love the MB? Their leader wants & expects egyptians, who are already poor & making ends meet, to cut off a few pounds from their salaries to pay to Hamas so the officials there can enjoy a life of pampered luxury while egyptians can suffer more.Is Mahdi akef out of his mind or what? why not do it for poor egyptians who number in the millions? why pay money for hamas in the first place when there are more serious problems in egypt to face other than give it to a terrorist organisation that will spend half on weapons that will get confiscated in the end & the other half to pamper themselves?or is it simply another ploy to divert people's attention to the palestinian problem & fill peoples hearts with more hatred?Another thing, who guarantees they wont take that money for themselves??

Is it my computer only, or can no-one read my first comment, unless they reply themselves to the article? :)

@Jokerman, in some way i am relieved that they announced it. Rather knowing it, than finding out they finance secretly. They could have used it for poor Egyptians, but as the Hamas' roots are the MB; you can imagine they prefer to finance their ideological brethern.

they are not considered a terrorist organization by the egyptian government, in fact omar soliman and other figures from inteligence and foreign afairs talk to hamas leaders regularly, collecting aid donations in Egypt and delivering it to Hamas to distribute through their social support network has been around for a while.

they are simply not considered a terrorist organization on any official capacity in Egypt.

Alaa, but can you imagine what our government can do to the MB if it suddenly decides to consider Hamas a terrorist organization?

Ignore that thought ya man. Let's not give them ideas.

But let's argue this: the MB has presence all over the world and in many european countries and in the US (CAIR is the MB office in the US btw). Should the US and Europe then move to freeze the accounts of the MB organizations there and the money of its financiers as well for violation of the US resolution on terrorist funding? Wouldn't that be technically legtimiate?

Why not ? The Al Aqsa foundation was proscribed by the U.S. Treasury in 2003 because they were sending funds to Hamas. Perhaps with all the cartoon violence {take that Wile E. Coyote} the U.S. doesn't want to piss the MB off too much at this time. Now, once they become the number one Great Satan again things may change but at the moment be pragmatic and put it the 'things we have to do later' file. Just a thought.

MB are walking a razors edge nowadays. Anything can happen in Egypt, you can wake up in the morning & find the government decided to include the MB in its government & they all lovey dovey, or wake up one day & find they arrested them all in one single sweep. Nobody knows whats going on for sure.

As per my recent posting on Pan Islamism, the Muslim Brotherhood's funding of Hamas is proof that the phenomenon is on the rise in the region.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate version of Hamas as they condemn violence and do not use rhetoric of intimidation to attain concessions. They certainly do not consider them a terrorist organization on an official level.

What is interesting (as I write in my article) is that the United States needs the Muslim Brotherhood's influence in Egypt as a buffer against extremists such as al-Qaeda. Thus it is difficult at this point for them to cut any negotiations, talks or aid-funding from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas.

The delicate situation comes in to play when Iran is involved since they are viewed as an extremist regime in the eyes of the United States. However, as with the Iraq war, the United States will need unequivocal evidence of malice to intervene in Iranian domestic and foreign affairs.

Pan-Islamism is gaining steady momentum in the region, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan already enforce Sharia Law. Moreover friends of Islamists have gained and continue to gain power in Palestine and Egypt.

Guess they missed the memo from the US State Dept. warning any Arab country from financing Hammas? I'm guessing that is why they are appealing to the people and it isn't the Government directly doing it?

CAIR is the MB in the US!? Hadn't heard that before,though it's obvious they aren't as innocent and moderate as they claim to be. The US may need unequivocal evidence of malice to intervene in Iran,but fortunately Israel does not.